CD Reviews

Apr 1, 2008 12:00 PM

ATMOSPHERE

When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold (Rhymesayers)
Less band in the monitors

Instead of the hard blasts that defined the sh*tstorm end of the 2005 You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having, Atmosphere producer Ant and MC Slug have gone all Unplugged. When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold fleshes out Slug's idea to improve upon the duo's live shows, and against reliably honest rhymes their sixth studio LP's ubiquitous synths and guitars please only infrequently.

The swagger on When Life…'s “Puppets” looks longingly to the Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet rather than Jay-Z's The Black Album; the barroom piano feels odd at the onset, landing far from the pearly, Rhodes-fattened melody of “Yesterday,” seven tracks later. Slug deals diary fare on the latter (“Never thought about the world without you”), and the narrative of “Dreamer” is just as bare-fistedly construed, but Atmosphere sounds awkward over a club rhythm and all those synths. Unlike Ant's textured, soul-45s-centered productions and borrowed beats on the 2007 free Strictly Leakage, When Life… pins a bar-band suit on a guy who sounds his best against breaks and cuts; the suit sometimes just won't fit. — Dominic Umile

BIG NOYD

Illustrious (Koch)
East Coast gets on the map again

Noyd has come a long way since dropping a guest verse on Mobb Deep's 1993 LP, Juvenile Hell. On “Snitches,” producer Sebb's use of trumpet and drums give the track a classic gangsta vibe. Songs range from jazzy Fizzy Womack tracks like “Things Done Changed” to Ric Rude's hard-hitting street anthem, “Ghetto.” As Noyd lays vocals on “Nowhere Else to Hide,” Rude goes to work on the keyboard, providing suspenseful verses that lead to banging hooks. Classic street messages and head-bopping instrumentals make this headphone-worthy. — Sotirios Adamopoulos

MLLE CARO & FRANCK GARCIA

Pain Disappears (Buzzin' Fly)
Melancholy dancin'

Boy meets girl, boy romances girl, boy loses girl. That seems to be the lyrical storyline behind DJ Caroline Laher and Franck Garcia's debut set, with their dual vocals morosely sliding over the roof of disarmingly peppy electronica/micro-house beats and minor tones. It's sparsely arranged, perhaps to leave room for those relationship ups and downs, even if the similar beats do get a bit monotonous at times. The real standouts are the one downtempo mid-album track, “Hold Me,” and the burbling Ewan Pearson remix of opening tune “Always You.” — Kristi Kates

CLARK

Turning Dragon (Warp)
Bit-crushing the competition

If you're already familiar with the chiming synth melodies, lush string sections and keenly structured beats of Chris Clark's breakout 2006 album, Body Riddle, then you'll no doubt be taken aback by Turning Dragon. A complete about-face from its predecessor's meditative atmospherics, the album lands punch after punch of noise-fueled sample jitter (“Volcan Veins”), aggressive tech-funk (“Violenl”) and borderline retro jungle (“Hot May Slides”), with some tracks moving at a blistering 140 bpm. It's a hypnotic, twisted and even terrifying package, which is why it absolutely works. — Bill Murphy

CLINIC

Do It! (Domino)
Scratch-your-head psyche rock

“Sun is slanted in the backyard” sings Ade Blackburn on “Free Not Free,” a strangely likeable yet barely listenable track on Clinic's fifth release — it's moody lounge rock, recorded direct to tape using vintage amps and no digital effects, with hints of Phil Spector or The Fall. “Tomorrow” sounds like Jefferson Airplane cavorted with John Denver and Devendra Banhart. Clarinets, harmonium, autoharp, a ship blow horn and the occasional pause all rattle around in Clinic's musical cage. Church bells amid a raging Pixies-style guitar solo? A little psychotic, but it works out in the end. — John Brandon

DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH?

You Have No Idea What You Are Getting Yourself Into (Virgin/Almost Gold)
Do we love it? Yeah.

Those frickin' Brits have done it again. DIOY, Y?'s debut album is an aural orgasm of pure fun. Long-name shenanigans aside, DIOY, Y? has assembled an eclectic bunch o' tracks that remind us of other bands we like: From the Justice-like “Battle Royale” and the Daft Punk-ish “We Are Rockstars” to the DFA 1979-esque “Let's Make Out” and The Killers-tinged “Epic Last Song,” this album will have you enjoying the hell out of whatever you're doing. DIOY, Y? borrows and blends its influences into one, cohesive album, putting its own stamp on each track. — Lori J. Kennedy

FUCK BUTTONS

Street Horrrsing (ATP)
And f*ck singing

Dismissing something called “Fuck Buttons” can be done with less effort than what's needed to send a text message. But peeking past the British duo's asinine stage name is worth it for the solemn fuzzed-out drones and chimes on Street Horrrsing. Distorted, screamed verses rattle three-chord beauties here in frequent battles between tension and bliss. “Bright Tomorrow” builds on a kick and church organ for four minutes before the compressed fuzz crashes in, muddying a simple, pleasant progression to clear a path for more screaming. Whatever the hell is being said sounds really important. — Dominic Umile

Acceptable Use Policy blog comments powered by Disqus

Want to use this article? Click here for options!